Top cylinder lubricator



st, Q, 1956 D. M. HARVEY 2,765,784

TOP CYLINDER LUBRICATOR 2 Sheets-Sheet l iled Sept. 29, 1950 49 v I .56 w 54 Ma 57 .9\ 6/ 62 4 7 7 77 55 INVENTOR.

Gd. 9, 1956 D. M. HARVEY TOP CYLINDER LUBRICATOR 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Sept. 29, 1950 FEGQQ INVENTOR.

TOP CYLINDER LUBRICATOR Draper M. Harvey, I-lingham, Mass., assignor to Automotive & Marine Products Corp., a corporation of Massachusetts Application September 29, 1950, Serial No. 187,383

4 Claims. (Cl. 123-196) The present invention relates to automotive engine lubrication, and has particular reference to a novel arrangement for providing effective top cylinder lubrication.

The principal object of the invention is to provide a system for adjusting and controlling auxiliary engine lubrication through a vapor lubricator.

Another object of the invention is to provide a vapor lubricator having pressure mechanism associated therewith for regulating and controlling discharge of an atomized spray.

A further object of the invention is to provide an atomized spray control for a vapor lubricator which maintains a desired spray pattern at the point of injection.

An additional object of the invention is to provide a line regulator for a vapor lubricator flow line which is adjustable to automatically control the flow pressure.

Another object of the invention is to provide a vacuum operated piston in a vapor lubricator flow line for an intake manifold, which ensures a positive progressive spray flow and an effective seal against which the manifold vacuum is operative.

With the above and other objects and advantageous features in view, the invention consists of a novel arrangement of parts more fully disclosed in the detailed description following, in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, and more specifically defined in the claims appended thereto.

In the drawings:

Fig. l is a perspective view showing an illustrative vapor lubricator mounted on an engine manifold;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged horizontal section therethrough;

Fig. 3 is a section through a modified construction;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of another modification;

Fig. 5 is a horizontal section of Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is a vertical section of another modification; and,

Figs. 7 and 8 are detail sections of piston constructions adapted to be mounted in a vapor lubricator flow line.

it has been found desirable to provide a vapor lubricator which may be mounted on an engine manifold, to inject an atomized lubrication vapor into the gas and air stream, the volume and velocity of the air and liquid flow being regulated to ensure a positive spray flow, additional supplemental air being added to establish and maintain a desired pressure differential in the flow line.

Referring to the drawings, the vapor lubricator 10 comprises a cylindrical body 11 having a mixing chamber 12. One end 13 of the body 11 is inwardly tapered as indicated at 14 to provide a funnel inlet for air, and communicates with the mixing chamber at one end thereof, the end 13 being reduced and externally threaded to receive a cylindrical shell 15 provided with a flanged outer ring 16 recessed to provide an annular seat 17 for an air screen 18, the air screen being preferably of the free flow wood type and being held in place by a cap 19 which has a slotted central projection 20, a wire 21 extending over the cap top and having its ends bent atent ice inwardly to rest in openings 22 in the ring 16 to detachably lock the air screen in place.

The body 11 has a lateral bushing 23 recessed and threaded at its outer end to receive a fitting 24 which has an inlet passage 25 for inflow of oil or other liquid or mixtures of liquid and air in spray form or the like, the passage 25 tapering to a reduced portion 26 and then flaring to provide a tapered valve seat 27 leading into the mixing chamber 12; a helically grooved plug 28 is fixed in the passage 25 to impart a rotational movement to the inflowing liquid.

The body 11 has a threaded bore 29 in axial alignment with the bushing 23, to receive a threaded stem 30 having a knurled enlarged cap 31 and resiliently urged outwardly by a spring 32 having its ends engaging the body 11 and the recessed underside of the cap 31; the inner end of the stem 30 is grooved to universally receive the rounded upper end of a valve 33, which has a tapered nose conforming to and cooperating with the valve seat 27, whereby the fiow of liquid into the mixing chamber is manually set by variation of the flow space between the valve nose and its seat, the valve being universally movable in its stem to ensure self-aligning and seating.

The liquid, for example lubricating oil, thus enters the mixing chamber and is impacted by a high velocity air stream which emerges from the funnel shaped inlet 14, the air inlet functioning as a venturi to increase the velocity, and the liquid is atomized within the mixing chamber to flow outwardly through an outlet 34 in the form of a vaporized spray. A spring pressed plug valve 35 is mounted in a bore 36 in the body 11 to shut off the flow if desired.

The outflowing vaporized spray passes through a reduced opening 37 in a threaded bushing 38; a housing 39 is threaded on the bushing 38 and has a helically grooved plug 40 set in a flow chamber 41, whereby the vaporized spray has a whirling motion imparted to it, the chamber 41 having a tapered outlet passage 42 leading to the interior of a bracket plate ring 43 which is adapted to be mounted on an engine manifold, see Fig. 1, whereby the vaporized spray is injected into the air and gas mixture passing through the manifold.

The above described vapor lubricator may have a liquid feed or a mixture feed of liquid and air; the feeds may be under pressure or may be suction induced by the manifold suction. The filtered air supply through the air inlet 14 is thus primary air or secondary air, depending on the inflow through the inlet passage 25, and the resulting atomized vapor is fed directly to the intake manifold.

Although I have described the helically grooved plugs 28 and 40 as fixed, they may be of a diameter to rotate in their respective chambers if desired, depending on the degree of resistance required to establish the air-liquid flow rate. The depth of the helical indentations or grooves may also be regulated to obtain a desired displacement and velocity of air and liquid into the mixing chamber, and a desired velocity of atomized vapor into the engine manifold.

A modified construction which includes a vacuum operated mechanism for ensuring a positive flow of atomized vapor is illustrated in Fig. 3. The vapor lubricator 44 is in the form of a Y with a cylindrical body 45 hav ing a mixing chamber 46, one leg 47 of the Y having an air inlet passage 48 which tapers down as indicated at 49 to communicate with the mixing chamber. The outer end of the leg 47 has a bored plug 50 mounted therein provided with air inlets 5 1, the plug having an annular air filter 52 mounted therein, the end of the bored plug being threaded to receive a filter lock cap 53. The other leg 54 of the Y has a lateral fitting 55 for inflow of fluid or liquid and air mixture to .a central passage 56, the outer end of the passage 56 being closed by a spring held manually adjustable valve'stem '57 threaded therein; The inner end of the valve stem 57 has a valve 53 universally secured thereto, the outer end of the valve '58 being conical and cooperating with a tapered seat '59 opening into the mixing chamber.

The infiowing filtered air and liquid, or filtered air and liquid and air mixture, mix thoroughly in the mixing chamber, and pass therefrom through a positive feed control mechanism 60, see Fig. 7, which is seated in an enlarged bore 61 in the body 45. The mechanism 60 includes a shell 62 having a Whirl device 63 in the form of a heli-cally grooved plug, whereby the air and liquid is whirl vaporized, to exit through a port opening 64 in a transverse closure disk 65, and to impact a movable piston 66 in an enlarged bore 67 which piston has annular V grooves 6-8 on the outer surface and has a flow control conical tongue 69 adapted to extend into the port opening 64. The tongue 69 has side openings 70 communicating with a through passage 71 which functions as a spray nozzle.

The piston has a rounded end, and is held in place in its bore 67 by a washer 72 seated in a fitting 7 3 which has its outer end threadedly engaging the correspondingly threaded reduced end of the body 45. The fitting 73 has a conical flow passage '74, whereby the vapor emerging from the passage 71 expands and then contracts, to flow outwardly through a terminal fitting 75. If desired, the fitting 75 may be directly mounted in a spray device or to a bracket plate ring but preferably has a fitting 76 threaded thereon, and has a through flow passage 77 equipped with an additional helically grooved plug 78, the fitting 76 being attached to a bracket plate ring 79 for mounting on an engine manifold. The plug 73 may be fixed or may be of a size to rotate, the thoroughly atomized vapor then emerging from the nozzle opening in the bracket plate ring, see Fig. 2, for injection into the air and gas mixture in the manifold.

The feed control mechanism 60 functions to ensure a positive flow, the V rings of the piston holding and displacing a viscous liquid, preferably, to provide an effective seal against which the manifold vacuum is operative. Any increase in back pressure causes the piston to move against its spring and to reduce the flow volume; as the pressure drops the piston moves forward to increase the flow volume.

The feed control mechanism may be adapted for inclusion in a flow line by forming the body 80 of the mechanism with an end flange 81 to receive a transparent cylinder 82, which has a flow passage 83 leading to the port opening 84 into which the tapered end of the piston extends. If desired, the tapered piston end may be changed to a port closure end 85, see Fig. 8, the piston 86 being otherwise similar to the piston of Fig. 7.

Referring now to Figs. 4 and 5, the vapor lubricator may be of elongated form to utilize the atomizing struvture heretofore described, and to supply additional supplemental air through a pressure control, whereby maximum atomizing is obtained at all times and under all pressure conditions. The vapor lubricator 87 includes a body 88 having a mixing chamber '89, an inlet for filtered air 90, and an inlet for liquid flow 9-1 which has a manually settable valve control 92, the resulting mixture pass ing through a passage 93 into -a chamber 94 in a fitting 95 threadably mounted on the body end, the chamber 94 being of a size to accommodate a feed control mechanism such as illustrated at 60, or as disclosed in Figs. 7 and 8. The resulting atomized vapor passes through another flow passage 96 in a fitting 97 threadably mounted on the outer end of the fitting 95, and a transverse air passage 98 admits supplemental air through a spring loaded pressure control 99, which includes a stud 100 threaded into the fitting 97 and having a bore 101 in which a spring 1102 and a ball valve 103 are mounted, the upper end of the bore having a bushing 104 with an air inlet 105; a flange cap 106 seats over the bushing 104 and contains an air filter 107, whereby additional filtered air is admitted through the control 99 whenever the flow line pressure drops below the pressure the spring control is set for.

A spring pressed plug valve 108 is mounted in the -fitting 97 and is movable to close the passage 96, the atomized vapor in the passage 96 exiting through a nipple i109 annd a fitting 110 having a helically grooved plug 111 therein of the type heretofore described, whereby the vapor lubricator 87 may be directly mounted to a sprayer or an engine manifold, or may be mounted in a bracket plate ring as heretofore described. A Window 9 7a may be set in the fitting 97 if desired.

The vapor lubricator constructions of Figs. 2 and 3 may also be provided with an auxiliary air supply through a mechanism 112, see Fig. 6, which includes a body 1'13 having its end threaded to receive the terminal end of the lubricator, the body 113 having a chamber 114 in which a helically grooved plug 115 is seated, the flow therefrom being through a tapered nozzle 116. Air is supplied to the nozzle passage 116 through a right angled fitting i117, and a double nipple 113 which has its outer end closed by a closure cap .119, the nipple 118 having a bushing inlet 120 and a bored plug 121 in which a ball valve 122 and a spring 123 are seated, the bore being closed by a bored plug 124 and an open cap 125 having a filter 126, whereby auxiliary air is regulatably admitted through the ball valve and around the nozzle 116 to emerge through a connecting nipple 127 which preferably has an expanding conical flow passage 128.

If desired, the structure shown in Fig. 6 may be utilized as an air-liquid mixer, for example to provide an oilair spray directly into the manifold of an engine, by connecting a fluid feed nipple 129 to the body 113, whereby oil may be led through the whirler plug 115 to emerge at high velocity from the nozzle 11s and to be impacted by air admitted through the filter cap 125, whereby the oil and air thoroughly mix to provide a fine spray.

I have described different constructional features of my invention, whereby it is evident that the invention relates to the controlled mixing of air and fluid to provide an atomized spray, the parts being arranged to admit fluid and filtered air to a mixing chamber, the fluid being liquid, or mixtures of liquid, or mixtures of liquid and air, and the resulting spray being kept in atomized form by using flared bushings and nozzles shaped to obviate interference with the spray pat-tern and to eliminate condensation and formation of liquid drops. The flow line may be provided with a line pressure regulator, preferably of the spring loaded type which may be set to admit additional air to maintain a desired flow pressure, and a feed control regulator may be set into the flow line to ensure a positive feed regardless of line pressure variations. The apparatus may be used for pressure spraying of oils, paints, and the like, by supplying liquid and air under pressure, or may be used for suction spraying of any desired fluids into sub-atmospheric pressure chambers such as engine manifolds and the like.

The size, shape, and arrangement of the parts, and the mounting of various controls, may be made to meet different atomized spray requirements, without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention as dofined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In combination, a bracket plate ring for attachment to an engine manifold including a housing having a flow chamber and a converging conical injection nozzle for receiving air-oil mixture from the flow chamber and discharging the mixture into .the bracket plate ring opening, said flow chamber having a plug with helical flow channels for imparting a helical whirl to the air and oil flowing therethrough, a fitting attached to said housing having a mixing chamber, flow control valve means for admitting oil to the mixing chamber, means for admitting air to said mixing chamber under pressure to vaporize the oil, and means for conducting the vaporized oil to the housing flow chamber.

2. In combination, a bracket plate ring for attachment to an engine manifold including a housing having a flow chamber and a converging conical injection nozzle for receiving air-oil mixture from the flow chamber and discharging the mixture into the bracket plate ring opening, said flow chamber having a plug with helical flow channels for imparting a helical whirl to the air and oil flowing therethrough, a fitting attached to said housing having a mixing chamber, flow control valve means for admitting oil to the mixing chamber, a whirl imparting device for imparting Whirl to the oil admitted to the mixing chamber, means for admitting air to said mixing chamber under pressure to vaporize the oil, and means for conducting the vaporized oil to the housing flow chamber.

3. In combination, a bracket plate ring for attachment to an engine manifold including a housing having a flow chamber and a converging conical injection nozzle for receiving air-oil mixture from the flow chamber and discharging the mixture into the bracket plate ring opening, said flow chamber having a plug with helical flow channels for imparting a helical Whirl to the air and oil flowing therethrough, a fitting attached to said housing having a mixing chamber, means for admitting oil to the mixing chamber, means for admitting air to said mixing chamber under pressure to vaporize the oil, means for admitting additional air to the vaporized oil, and means for conducting the vaporized oil and additional air to the housing flow chamber.

4. In combination, a bracket plate ring for attachment to an engine manifold including a housing having a flow chamber and a converging conical injection nozzle for receiving air-oil mixture from the flow chamber and discharging the mixture into the bracket plate ring opening, said flow chamber having a plug with helical fiow channels for imparting a helical whirl to the air and oil flowing therethrough, a fitting attached to said housing having a mixing chamber, means for admitting oil to the mixing chamber, means for admitting air to said mixing chamber under pressure to vaporize the oil comprising a spring pressed check valve, means for admit-ting additional air to the vaporized oil, and means for conducting the vaporized oil and additional air to the housing flow chamber.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 772,240 Kelsey Oct. 11, 1904 860,259 Smith July 16, 1907 1,192,645 Koerting July 25, 1916 1,464,733 Sterns Aug. 14, 1923 1,827,583 James Oct. 13, 1931 1,833,913 Ross Dec. 1, 1931 1,839,279 Van Tuyl Jan. 5, 1932 1,897,388 I-I'alford Feb. 14, 1933 1,917,125 Jackson July 4, 1933 2,051,706 Harris Aug. 18, 1936 2,112,538 Loughlin Mar. 29, 1938 2,313,462 Brooks Mar. 9, 1943 2,428,915 Keller Oct. 14, 1947 2,541,129 Taber Feb. 13, 1951 2,549,598 Harris Apr. 17, 1951 2,589,081 Hertz Mar. 11, 1952 FOREIGN PATENTS 606,678 Germany Dec. 7, 1934 867,380 France July 21, 1941 871,758 France Jan. 22, 1942 

